Mitsubishi HC1500 DLP Home Theater Projector Review

August 4, 2007 - Art Feierman

Mitsubishi HC1500 Home Theater Projector: Physical Tour

From the front, the HC1500 is a compact projector, with its 1.2:1 ratio zoom lens center mounted. Thanks to the lens being centered, you don’t have to calculate for a lens mounted off-center, and, if ceiling mounting, won’t have to compensate for where the ceiling mount (or shelf) needs to be placed.

For a 100″ diagonal 16:9 screen, the projector can be placed as close as 11.9 feet and as far back as 14.5 feet.

Just to the right of the lens is the front Infra-red sensor for the remote control. Below the lens, and slightly off-center, is the HC1500′s single front foot. It is screw thread adjustable for height. I should note that there are also 2 rear feet (at the far back on each side). These are also screw adjustable, but these two each have a drop release button as well. With all feet unextended, the projector projects the image upward slightly, relative to the projector placement. Moving to the top, directly behind the lens are the manual adjustment rings for zoom and focus. Also on the top of the HC1500, is the control panel.

The control panel itself is basic. In addition to a large power button, there are only six additional buttons, although several have two functions. Looking from the rear, the lower left button brings up the menu. Navigation is then handled by the four arrow keys, and in the center of those, the Enter button. When not using the menu, the up arrow doubles to handle auto setup, the left and right arrows do source selection (the left one computer and the right one, video).

The inputs are located on the back of the HC1500. The selection is pretty standard: A single HDMI input for a digital source, one HD15 computer input for a typical analog computer source, or it can be used for a component video signal. Then, there are the usual 3 RCA jacks for Component video, allowing a total of 2 component video sources, if you aren’t hooking up a computer. In addition there are the usual S-video and composite video inputs. The Mitsubishi HC1500 also has a serial port and USB for “command and control”. Lastly, there’s one “luxury” item, the HC1500 also sports a 12volt Trigger jack for controlling a compatible motorized screen (most motorized screens have 12 volt control as an option, some versions standard). Lastly, there is a second IR (infra-red) sensor for the remote, and the power receptical.

The HC1500 vents hot air out the front, away from the lens (to the right if you are looking from the back of the projector). This makes the HC1500 home theater projector viable for shelf mounting in the rear of your room, if that should work for your situation. (It would need to be mounted below the screen bottom.)

The projector’s case, as noted, is dark gray, with the lens and some front trim (actually behind the grill) in black. As you can see from the image, the overall look is slightly sculpted with the top of the projector slightly higher in the center and lowering towards the left and right sides.

Overall, the Mitsubishi isn’t particularly physically attractive, but at least, it’s not a plain box. Most important is how the image looks on the screen. And that means it’s time to explore the Mitsubishi HC1500 projector’s image quality.